Quick viewing(Text Mode)

Paul Halpern

Paul Halpern

7 × 10.5 SPINE: 0 FLAPS: 0

B A S I C BOOKS

s p r i n g & s u m m e r

2 o 2 1 978-1-5416-2040-7 Renowned publisher of serious nonfiction by leading intellectuals, scholars, and journalists

spring & summer 2021

new titles

new hardcovers  3

paperbacks  21

highlights  24

meet the editors  28

about basic books  30

contact information  31

COVER DESIGN: CHIN-YEE LAI COVER IMAGES: (FRONT) DETAIL. ADDISON GALLERY OF AMERICAN ART, PHILLIPS ACADEMY, ANDOVER, MA / ART RESOURCE, NY; (BACK) PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN, SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM

STEPHON ALEXANDER

FEAR OF A BLACK UNIVERSE An Outsider’s Guide to the Future of Physics

ears ago, cosmologist Stephon Alexan- der received life-changing advice: to Y discover real physics, he needed to stop memorizing and start taking risks. In Fear of a Black Universe, Alexander shows that great physics requires us to think outside the mainstream— to improvise and rely on intuition. His approach leads him to three principles that shape all theories of the universe: the principle of invari- ance, the quantum principle, and the principle of emergence. Alexander uses them to explore some of physics’ greatest mysteries, from what A cosmologist argues that happened before the to how the uni- physics must embrace the excluded, verse makes consciousness possible. Drawing listen to the unheard, and be on his experience as a Black physicist, he makes a powerful case for diversifying our scientific unafraid of being wrong communities. Compelling and empowering, Fear of a Black Universe offers remarkable insight into the art of physics. NEW HARDCOVER • MAY Physics • $28.00 / $35.00 CAN STEPHON ALEXANDER 6 x 9¼ • 272 pages is a professor of physics at 978-1-5416-9963-2 Brown University and the 2020 president of the National Society E-BOOK 978-1-5416-9961-8 of Black Physicists. He is also a Selling Territory: USC jazz musician and released his first electronic Author photo © Heather Goodell jazz album with Erin Rioux. The author of The Jazz of Physics, Alexander lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

basic books • 3 JON DUNN

THE GLITTER IN THE GREEN In Search of Hummingbirds

ummingbirds are a glittering, sparkling collective of over three Hhundred wildly variable species. For centuries, they have been revered by indigenous Americans, coveted by European collectors, and admired worldwide for their unsurpassed metallic plumage and immense character. Yet they exist on a knife-edge, fighting for survival in boreal woodlands, dripping cloud forests, and subpolar islands. They are, perhaps, the ulti- mate embodiment of ’s power to carve a niche for a delicate creature in even the harshest An acclaimed natural of places. writer follows the trail of the Traveling the full length of the humming- remarkable hummingbird birds’ range, from the cusp of the Arctic Circle to near-Antarctic islands, acclaimed writer Jon Dunn encounters birders, scientists, and storytellers in his quest to find these beguiling creatures, immersing us in the world of one of NEW HARDCOVER • APRIL Earth’s most charismatic bird families. Nature • $30.00 / $38.00 CAN 6 x 9¼ • 320 pages JON DUNN is a natural his- Thirty-two color plates tory writer, photographer, and 978-1-5416-1819-0 wildlife tour leader. His writ- E-BOOK 978-1-5416-1818-3 ing has appeared in a number Selling Territory: USC of magazines, including BBC Wildlife. He is the author of three previous books, including Orchid Summer. He lives on his croft on the remote Shetland Islands.

basic books • 4 AKHIL REED AMAR

THE WORDS THAT MADE US America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760–1840

hen the US Constitution won pop- ular approval in 1788 , it was the W culmination of thirty years of pas- sionate argument over the nature of government. But ratification hardly ended the conversation. For the next half century, ordinary Americans and statesmen alike continued to wrestle with weighty questions in the halls of government and in the pages of newspapers. Should the nation’s borders be expanded? Should America allow slavery to spread westward? What rights should Indian nations hold? What was the proper role of the judicial branch? A history of the American Constitution’s In The Words that Made Us, Akhil Reed formative decades, from a Amar unites history and law in a vivid narra - preeminent legal scholar tive of the biggest constitutional questions early Americans confronted, and he expertly assesses the answers they offered. His account of the doc- ument’s origins and consolidation is a guide for NEW HARDCOVER • MAY anyone seeking to properly understand America’s Law / History • $35.00 / $44.00 CAN Constitution today. 6 x 9¼ • 656 pages Forty black-and-white illustrations AKHIL REED AMAR is the 978-0-465-09635-0 Sterling professor of law and E-BOOK 978-0-465-09636-7 political at Yale Univer- sity and the author of several Selling Territory: W books on constitutional law and Author photo © Harold Shapiro history, including America’s Constitution: A Biogra- phy and America’s Unwritten Constitution. He lives in Woodbridge, Connecticut.

basic books • 5 DAMBISA MOYO

HOW BOARDS WORK And How They Can Work Better in a Chaotic World

orporate boards are under great pres- sure. Scandals and malpractice at com- C panies like Theranos, WeWork, Uber, and Wells Fargo have raised justified questions among regulators, shareholders, and the pub- lic about the quality of corporate governance. In How Boards Work, prize-winning economist and veteran board director Dambisa Moyo offers an insider’s view of corporate boards as they are buffeted by the turbulence of our times. Moyo argues that corporations need A New York Times–bestselling boards that are more transparent, more knowl- author and veteran board member edgeable, more diverse, and more deeply offers an insider’s view of corporate involved in setting the strategic course of the boards, their struggles, and companies they lead. How Boards Work offers a why they must adapt to survive road map for how boards can steer companies through tomorrow’s challenges and ensure they thrive to benefit their employees, shareholders, and society at large. NEW HARDCOVER • MAY Business • $30.00 / $38.00 CAN DAMBISA MOYO is a prize- 6 x 9¼ • 304 pages winning author of the New York 978-1-5416-1942-5 Times bestsellers Edge of Chaos, E-BOOK 978-1-5416-1941-8 Winner Take All, and Dead Aid, Selling Territory: USC and she was named one of the Author photo © Helen Jones Photography “100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time magazine. Moyo regularly contributes to the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. She lives in and .

basic books • 6 SEAN McMEEKIN

STALIN’S WAR A New History of World War II

e remember World War II as a strug- gle between good and evil, with W Hitler propelling events and the Allied powers saving the day. But Hitler’s armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit the spoils of war. That role belonged to Joseph Stalin. Hitler’s genocidal ambition may have unleashed Armageddon, but as celebrated historian Sean McMeekin shows, the conflicts that emerged were the result of Stalin’s maneu- verings, orchestrated to unleash a war between capitalist powers in Europe and between Japan A major new history and the Anglo-American forces in the Pacific. of the Second World War by a Meanwhile, the and Britain’s prize-winning historian self-defeating strategy of supporting Stalin and his armies at all costs allowed the Soviets to con- quer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism. NEW HARDCOVER • APRIL A groundbreaking reassessment, Stalin’s History • $40.00 / $50.00 CAN War is essential reading for anyone looking to 6 x 9¼ • 768 pages understand the roots of the current world order. Twenty-four maps, fifty black-and-white illustrations 978-1-5416-7279-6 SEAN McMEEKIN is a pro- E-BOOK 978-1-5416-7277-2 fessor of history at Bard College. The award-winning author of Selling Territory: USC several books, including The Author photo © Nesrin Ersoy Russian Revolution, July 1914, and The Ottoman Endgame, McMeekin lives in Clermont, New York.

basic books • 7 SIMON McCARTHY-JONES

SPITE The Upside of Your Dark Side

pite seems utterly useless. You don’t gain anything by hurting yourself just so you S can hurt someone else. So why hasn’t evolution weeded out all the spiteful people? As psychologist Simon McCarthy-Jones argues, spite seems pointless because we’re look- ing at it wrong. Spite isn’t just what we feel when a car cuts us off or when a partner cheats. It’s what we feel when we want to punish a bad act simply because it was bad. Spite is our fairness instinct, an innate resistance to exploitation, and it is one of the building blocks of human civilization. As McCarthy-Jones explains, some of history’s How petty vengeance most important developments—the rise of reli- explains human thriving gions, governments, and even moral codes—were actually redirections of spiteful impulses. A provocative, engaging read, Spite shows that if you really want to understand what makes us human, you can’t just look at noble ideas like NEW HARDCOVER • APRIL altruism and cooperation. You need to under- Science • $28.00 / $35.00 CAN stand our darker impulses as well. 5½ x 8¼ • 272 pages 978-1-5416-4699-5 SIMON McCARTHY-JONES E-BOOK 978-1-5416-4698-8 is associate professor of psy - Selling Territory: USC chology at Trinity College Dub- lin. His research has appeared in Nature Communications, Clinical Review, and elsewhere. He has been featured in Newsweek and New Scientist and on BBC News, ABC Radio, and the BBC World Service. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.

basic books • 8 OLIVETTE OTELE

AFRICAN EUROPEANS An Untold History

onventional wisdom holds that Africans are only a recent presence in Europe. C But in African Europeans, renowned his- torian Olivette Otele debunks this and uncovers a long history of Europeans of African descent. From the third century, when the Egyptian Saint Maurice became the leader of a Roman legion, all the way up to the present, Otele explores encounters between those defined as “Africans” and those called “Europeans.” She gives equal attention to the most prominent figures—like Alessandro de Medici, the first duke of Flor - A dazzling history of Africans ence thought to have been born to a free African in Europe, revealing their woman in a Roman village—and the untold sto- unacknowledged role ries—like the lives of dual-heritage families in Europe’s coastal trading towns. in shaping the continent African Europeans is a landmark celebra- tion of this integral, vibrantly complex slice of European history, and will redefine the field for NEW HARDCOVER • MAY years to come. History • $30.00 / $38.00 CAN 6 x 9¼ • 272 pages OLIVETTE OTELE is pro- 978-1-5416-1967-8 fessor of the at the University of and E-BOOK 978-1-5416-1993-7 vice president of the Royal His- Selling Territory: USC torical Society. She is the first Author photo © Adrian Sherratt Black woman to be appointed to a professorial chair in history in the UK, and her writing has appeared in , BBC Extra, and Times Higher Education. She lives in the UK.

basic books • 9 MATT FEENEY

LITTLE PLATOONS A Defense of Family in a Competitive Age

arents naturally worry about the future. They want to prepare their children to P compete in an uncertain world. But often, argues political philosopher and father of three Matt Feeney, today’s worried parents sur- render their family’s autonomy to gain a leg up in this competition. In the American ideal, family, life is a sacred and private sphere, distinct from the out- side world. But in our hypercompetitive times, Feeney shows, parents have become increas- ingly willing to let the inner life of the family be A brilliant analysis of the true roots colonized by outside forces that promise better of over-parenting, and a case for the futures for their kids: prestigious preschools, vital importance of family life “educational” technologies, youth sports leagues, a multitude of enrichment activities, and—most of all—college. A provocative, eye-opening book for any parent who suspects their kids’ stuffed schedules are not serving their best interests, NEW HARDCOVER • MARCH Little Platoons calls us to rediscover the distinc- Parenting • $28.00 / $35.00 CAN tive, profound solidarity of family life. 6 x 9¼ • 288 pages 978-1-5416-4559-2 MATT FEENEY holds a PhD E-BOOK 978-1-5416-4558-5 in political from Selling Territory: USC Duke University, and he has Author photo © Laura Arechiga written for the National Review, New Yorker, Slate, Pacific Stan- dard, and Weekly Standard. He lives with his wife and three children in Oakland, California.

basic books • 10 STEPHEN M. FLEMING

KNOW THYSELF The Science of Self-Awareness

t happens to everyone: You are asked a question—even something you know well, I such as the name of a longtime colleague— and can’t answer. The information is stuck on the tip of your tongue. It’s an experience so frus- trating that it seems like it must be a brain mal- function. In fact, it’s actually a hallmark of our greatest power: self-awareness. As cognitive neuroscientist Stephen M. Fleming shows in Know Thyself, self-awareness shapes our intelligence, memory, and conscious experience. It’s integral to how we teach and learn. We use it every time we weigh difficult The surprising science of the questions, such as assessing how we’d respond human mind’s greatest power: in a crisis. Drawing on psychology and neuro- introspection science, Fleming provides deep insight into how self-awareness works, and how we can enhance our ability to know our strengths and weak- nesses. In the end, this book isn’t just about NEW HARDCOVER • APRIL psychology: it’s about the science of human Psychology • $30.00 / $38.00 CAN excellence. 6 x 9¼ • 320 pages Eleven black-and-white illustrations STEPHEN M. FLEMING 978-1-5416-7284-0 is a Sir Henry Dale Wellcome E-BOOK 978-1-5416-7285-7 Trust/Royal Society fellow at the department of experimen- Selling Territory: USC tal psychology and principal Author photo © Royal Society investigator at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, where he leads the Metacognition Group. He lives in London.

basic books • 11 SUSAN R. BARRY

COMING TO OUR SENSES A Boy Who Learned to See, a Girl Who Learned to Hear, and How We All Discover the World

e think of perception as a passive, mechanical process, as if our eyes W are cameras and our ears micro- phones. But as neurobiologist Susan R. Barry argues, perception is a deeply personal act. Our environments, our relationships, and our actions shape and reshape our senses throughout our lives. This idea is no more apparent than in the cases of people who gain senses as adults. Barry tells the stories of Liam McCoy, practically blind from birth, and Zohra Damji, born deaf, in the What can we learn about decade following surgeries that restored their our senses from people senses. As Liam and Zohra learned entirely new who were born without them? ways of being, Barry discovered an entirely new model of the nature of perception. Coming to Our Senses is a celebration of human resilience and a powerful reminder that, before you can really understand other people, you must first NEW HARDCOVER • JUNE recognize that their worlds are fundamentally Science • $28.00 / $35.00 CAN different from your own. 6 x 9¼ • 240 pages Forty black-and-white illustrations SUSAN R. BARRY is pro- 978-1-5416-7515-5 fessor emeritus of biology and E-BOOK 978-1-5416-7516-2 neuroscience at Mount Holyoke Selling Territory: W College, where she researched Author photo © Rosalie Winard neuroplasticity and stereovi- sion, and the author of Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist’s Journey into Seeing in Three Dimensions. She lives in Massachusetts.

basic books • 12 JASON L. RILEY

MAVERICK A Biography of

homas Sowell is one of the great social theorists of our age. In a career span- T ning more than half a century, he has written over thirty books, covering topics from economic history and social inequality to political theory, race, and culture. His bold and unsentimental assaults on liberal orthodoxy have endeared him to many readers but have also enraged fellow intellectuals, the civil-rights establishment, and much of the mainstream media. The result has been a lack of acknowl- edgment of his scholarship among critics who prioritize political correctness. A biography of Thomas Sowell, In the first-ever biography of Sowell, Jason one of America’s most influential L. Riley gives this iconic thinker his due and conservative thinkers responds to the detractors. Maverick showcases Sowell’s most significant writings and traces the life events that shaped his ideas and resulted in a Black orphan from the Jim Crow South becoming NEW HARDCOVER • MAY one of our foremost public intellectuals. Biography • $28.00 / $35.00 CAN 6 x 9¼ • 272 pages JASON L. RILEY is a senior 978-1-5416-1968-5 fellow at the Manhattan Insti- tute and a columnist for the Wall E-BOOK 978-1-5416-1969-2 Street Journal. He is the author of Selling Territory: W several previous books, includ- Author photo © Julie Brimberg ing Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed.

basic books • 13 PAUL HALPERN

FLASHES OF CREATION George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, and the Great Big Bang Debate

oday, the Big Bang is so entrenched in our understanding of the cosmos that T to doubt it would seem crazy. But as Paul Halpern shows in Flashes of Creation, just decades ago its mere mention caused sparks to fly. At the center of the debate were Russian American physicist George Gamow and British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. Gamow insisted that a fiery explosion explained how the elements of the universe were created. Attacking the idea as half- baked, Hoyle countered that the universe was engaged in a never-ending process of creation. The great debate over the The battle was fierce. In the end, Gamow turned Big Bang and the quest to understand out to be right—mostly—and Hoyle, along with his the fate of the universe many achievements, is remembered for giving the theory the silliest possible name: “The Big Bang.” Halpern captures the brilliance of both thinkers and reminds us that even those proved wrong have much to teach us about boldness, NEW HARDCOVER • AUGUST imagination, and the universe itself. Science • $30.00 / $38.00 CAN 6 x 9¼ • 320 pages PAUL HALPERN is a profes- 978-1-5416-7359-5 sor of physics at the University E-BOOK 978-1-5416-7361-8 of the in Philadelphia Selling Territory: W and the author of seventeen Author photo © University of the Sciences books, includ- ing The Quantum Labyrinth, Einstein’s Dice and Schrödinger’s Cat, and Synchronicity. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and is a fellow of the American Physical Society. He lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

basic books • 14 CHARLES SEIFE

HAWKING HAWKING The Selling of a Scientific Celebrity

hen died, he was widely recognized as the W world’s best physicist, and even its smartest person. He was neither. In Hawking Hawking, science journalist Charles Seife explores how Stephen Hawking came to be thought of as humanity’s greatest genius. Hawking spent his career grappling with deep questions in physics, but his renown didn’t rest on his science. He was a master of self- promotion, hosting parties for time travelers, declaring victory over problems he had not solved, How Stephen Hawking became and wooing billionaires. Confined to a wheelchair the most brilliant man alive and physically dependent on a cadre of devotees, Hawking still managed to captivate the people around him—and use them for his own purposes. A brilliant exposé and powerful biography, Hawking Hawking uncovers the authentic Hawking NEW HARDCOVER • APRIL buried underneath the fake. It is the story of a man Science / Biography • $30.00 / $38.00 CAN whose brilliance in physics was matched by his 6 x 9¼ • 416 pages genius for building his own myth. Three black-and-white illustrations 978-1-5416-1837-4 CHARLES SEIFE is a pro- E-BOOK 978-1-5416-1838-1 fessor of journalism at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Selling Territory: USC Institute and has been writing Author photo © Sigrid Estrada about science and mathematics for nearly three decades. The author of numerous books, including the bestselling Zero, he lives in New York City.

basic books • 15 MARCUS AURELIUS Edited by ROBIN WATERFIELD

MEDITATIONS The Annotated Edition

arcus Aurelius Antoninus (121–180 ce) was the sixteenth emperor of MRome—and by far the most power- ful man in the world. Yet he was also an intensely private person, with a rich interior life, and one of the wisest minds of his generation. He collected his thoughts in notebooks, gems that have come to be called his Meditations. Never intended for publication, the work has proved an inexhaustible source of wisdom and one of the most important Stoic texts of all time. In often passionate lan- guage, the entries range from one-line aphorisms The definitive annotated to essays, from profundity to bitterness. translation of Marcus Aurelius’s This annotated edition offers the defini- Meditations tive translation of this classic and much beloved text, with copious notes from world-renowned classics expert Robin Waterfield. It illuminates one of the greatest works of popular philosophy for new readers and enriches the understanding NEW HARDCOVER • APRIL of even the most devoted Stoic. Philosophy • $27.00 / $34.00 CAN 5½ x 8¼ • 400 pages ROBIN WATERFIELD is a 978-1-5416-7385-4 British classical scholar, trans- E-BOOK 978-1-5416-7560-5 lator, and editor, specializing in Selling Territory: W Ancient Greek philosophy. He Author photo © David Stuttard lives in Greece.

basic books • 16 JEFF HAWKINS

A THOUSAND BRAINS A New Theory of Intelligence

WITH A FOREWORD BY

or all of neuroscience’s advances, we’ve made little progress on its biggest ques- F tion: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses maplike structures to build a model of the world—not just one model, but hun- dreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought. A bestselling author, neuroscientist, A Thousand Brains heralds a revolution in and computer engineer unveils the understanding of intelligence. It is a big- a theory of intelligence that will think book, in every sense of the word. revolutionize our understanding of the brain and the future of AI JEFF HAWKINS is the cofounder of Numenta, a neu- roscience research company; founder of the Redwood Neuro- NEW HARDCOVER • MARCH Science • $28.00 / $35.00 CAN science Institute; and one of the 6 x 9¼ • 272 pages founders of the field of handheld computing. He Eight black-and-white illustrations is a member of the National Academy of Engi- 978-1-5416-7581-0 neering and author of On Intelligence. E-BOOK 978-1-5416-7580-3

Selling Territory: W Author photo © Tri Nguyen / Tri Nguyen Photography

basic books • 17 NICHOLAS THOMAS

VOYAGERS The Settlement of the Pacific

he islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia stretch across a huge T expanse of ocean and encompass a mul- titude of different peoples. Starting with Captain James Cook, the earliest European explorers to visit the Pacific were astounded and perplexed to find populations thriving thousands of miles from continents. Who were these people? From where did they come? And how were they able to reach islands dispersed over such vast tracts of ocean? In Voyagers, the distinguished anthropol- From an award-winning scholar, ogist Nicholas Thomas charts the course of the the extraordinary sixty-thousand-year seaborne migrations that populated the islands history of how the Pacific islands between Asia and the Americas from late pre- were settled history onward. Drawing on the latest research, including insights gained from genetics, lin- guistics, and archaeology, Thomas provides a dazzling account of these long-distance migra- NEW HARDCOVER • JUNE tions, the seagoing technologies that enabled Science • $25.00 / $31.00 CAN them, and the societies they left in their wake. 5 x 7½ • 224 pages Fifteen black-and-white illustrations NICHOLAS THOMAS is pro- 978-1-5416-1983-8 fessor of historical anthro- E-BOOK 978-1-5416-2005-6 pology at the University of Selling Territory: USC Cambridge and director of the Author photo © Annie Coombes Cambridge Museum of Archae- ology and Anthropology. Originally from Austra- lia, he has written and edited numerous books, including Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire, for which he was awarded the Wolfson History Prize in 2011. He lives in London.

basic books • 18 JOSHUA D. ROTHMAN

THE LEDGER AND THE CHAIN How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America

lave traders are peripheral figures in most of American slavery. But S these men—who trafficked and sold over half a million enslaved people from the Upper South to the Deep South—were essential to slav- ery’s expansion and fueled the growth and pros- perity of the United States. In The Ledger and the Chain, acclaimed his- torian Joshua D. Rothman recounts the shocking story of the domestic slave trade by tracing the lives and careers of Isaac Franklin, John Arm- field, and Rice Ballard, who built the largest and most powerful slave-trading operation in The harrowing history of American history. Far from social outcasts, they America’s internal slave trade were rich and widely respected businessmen, and their company sat at the center of capital flows connecting southern fields to northeast- ern banks. Bringing together entrepreneur- ial ambition and remorseless violence toward NEW HARDCOVER • APRIL enslaved people, domestic slave traders produced History • $35.00 / $44.00 CAN an atrocity that forever transformed the nation. 6 x 9¼ • 512 pages Twenty-four black-and-white illustrations, one map JOSHUA D. ROTHMAN is 978-1-5416-1661-5 professor of history and chair E-BOOK 978-1-5416-1659-2 of the department of history at the University of Alabama. He is Selling Territory: W the author of two prize-winning Author photo © Matthew Wood books, Flush Times and Fever Dreams and Notorious in the Neighborhood. He lives in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

basic books • 19 IAN STEWART

WHAT’S THE USE? How Mathematics Shapes Everyday Life

lmost all of us have sat in a math class, wondering when we’d ever need to A know how to find the roots of a polyno- mial or graph imaginary numbers. And in one sense, we were right: if we needed to, we’d use a computer. But as Ian Stewart argues in What’s the Use?, math isn’t just about boring computations. Rather, it offers us new and profound insights into our world, allowing us to accomplish feats as significant as space exploration and organ dona- tion. From the trigonometry that keeps a satellite in orbit to the prime numbers used by the world’s An esteemed mathematician most advanced security systems to the imaginary shows how, from technology numbers that enable augmented reality, math to health care and beyond, isn’t just relevant to our lives. It is the very fabric math powers the world of our existence.

IAN STEWART is emeritus professor of mathematics at • NEW HARDCOVER AUGUST the University of Warwick. His Mathematics • $28.00 / $35.00 CAN recent books include Calculating 6 x 9¼ • 320 pages Forty-nine black-and-white illustrations the Cosmos, Significant Figures, In 978-1-5416-9948-9 Pursuit of the Unknown, Professor Stewart’s Hoard of Mathematical Treasures, and Do Dice Play God? E-BOOK 978-1-5416-9949-6 He is a fellow of the Royal Society. He lives in Selling Territory: USC Coventry, UK. Author photo © Avril Stewart

basic books • 20 PAPERBACKS The Tyranny of Experts (Revised Edition) WILLIAM EASTERLY 978-1-5416-7567-4

The Russian Revolution SEAN McMEEKIN 978-1-5416-7548-3

The Model Thinker SCOTT E. PAGE 978-1-5416-7571-1

War Fever RANDY ROBERTS & JOHNNY SMITH 978-1-5416-7268-0

Dominion TOM HOLLAND 978-1-5416-7559-9

No Man’s Land WENDY MOORE 978-1-5416-7275-8

basic books • 22 Music TED GIOIA 978-1-5416-4437-3

America, Empire of Liberty (Revised and Updated) DAVID REYNOLDS 978-1-5416-7569-8

The Gates of Europe (Revised Edition) SERHII PLOKHY 978-1-5416-7564-3

America for Americans ERIKA LEE 978-1-5416-7261-1

The Broken Heart of America WALTER JOHNSON 978-1-5416-1958-6

The Art of Statistics DAVID SPIEGELHALTER 978-1-5416-7570-4

basic books • 23 HIGHLIGHTS highlights

The Second World Wars Hitler’s First Hundred Days The Sword and the Shield VICTOR DAVIS HANSON PETER FRITZSCHE PENIEL E. JOSEPH 978-1-5416-7410-3 978-1-5416-9743-0 978-1-5416-1786-5

Lost in Math Children of Ash and Elm Mortal Republic SABINE HOSSENFELDER NEIL PRICE EDWARD J. WATTS 978-1-5416-4676-6 978-0-465-09698-5 978-1-5416-4648-3

The Book of Why The Habsburgs Vanguard JUDEA PEARL & DANA MACKENZIE MARTYN RADY MARTHA S. JONES 978-1-5416-9896-3 978-1-5416-4450-2 978-1-5416-1861-9

basic books 25 highlights

Philip and Alexander Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog ADRIAN GOLDSWORTHY Together in the Cafeteria? BRUCE D. PERRY & MAIA SZALAVITZ 978-1-5416-4669-8 BEVERLY DANIEL TATUM 978-0-465-09445-5

The Design of Everyday Things Gödel, Escher, Bach Trauma and Recovery DON NORMAN DOUGLAS R. HOFSTADTER JUDITH HERMAN 978-0-465-05065-9 978-0-465-02656-2 978-0-465-06171-6

The Half Has Never Been Told Dying of Whiteness The Republic of Plato EDWARD E. BAPTIST JONATHAN M. METZL ALLAN BLOOM 978-0-465-04966-0 978-1-5416-4497-7 978-0-465-09408-0

basic books • 26 highlights

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog The Interpretation of Dreams Love’s Executioner Anarchy, State, and Utopia BRUCE D. PERRY & MAIA SZALAVITZ IRVIN D. YALOM ROBERT NOZICK 978-0-465-09445-5 978-0-4650-1977-9 978-0-465-02011-9 978-0-465-05100-7

Just and Unjust Wars Bloodlands The Jazz of Physics MICHAEL WALZER TIMOTHY SNYDER STEPHON ALEXANDER 978-0-4650-5271-4 978-0-4650-3147-4 978-0-465-09357-1

The Master Algorithm The Pleasure of Finding Things Out The Truth About Animals PEDRO DOMINGOS RICHARD P. FEYNMAN LUCY COOKE 978-0-4650-9427-1 978-0-4650-2395-0 978-1-5416-7408-0

basic books • 27 meet the editors

LARA HEIMERT Lara Heimert joined Basic Books in 2005. Previously, she was publisher publisher of the trade division at Press. She has p: 212-364-0669 published numerous prize-winning and New York Times best- e: [email protected] selling titles. Highlights include Edward Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told, Eugene Rogan’s The Fall of the Ottomans, Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands, Nicholas Stargardt’s The German War, Bee Wilson’s Consider the Fork, and Victor Davis Hanson’s The Second World Wars. A graduate of , Lara acquires primarily in the field of history, broadly conceived—from world wars to marginalia, from culinary history to political theory, from diaspora to doodles.

THOMAS KELLEHER Thomas Kelleher joined Basic Books in 2009, and publishes associate publisher predominantly in science, mathematics, and . He has & editorial director, published Eric Topol, , Edward Frenkel, Eugenia sciences Cheng, and Leonard Susskind, among many others. Recent high- p: 212-364-0657 lights include Azra Raza’s The First Cell, Mark Moffett’s The Human e: [email protected] Swarm, Stephon Alexander’s The Jazz of Physics, Adam Becker’s What Is Real?, Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie’s The Book of Why, and Sabine Hossenfelder’s Lost in Math. He is also responsible for the publishing program surrounding the Feynman Lectures on Physics.

BRIAN J. DISTELBERG Brian J. Distelberg joined Basic Books in 2015 and acquires editorial director, primarily in history. Books he has edited and published include history & s o c i a l Edward Watts’s Mortal Republic, Erika Lee’s America for Americans, sciences Peniel Joseph’s The Sword and the Shield, Walter Johnson’s The p: 212-364-0655 Broken Heart of America, Martyn Rady’s The Habsburgs, and Martha e: [email protected] Jones’s Vanguard. He also publishes a select number of books in politics and law; highlights include Jonathan Metzl’s Dying of Whiteness and Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz’s To End a Presidency. Brian worked previously at and holds a PhD in US history from Yale University.

basic books • 28 meet the editors

CLAIRE POTTER Claire Potter joined Basic Books in 2019 and primarily acquires senior editor history and biography. Her forthcoming titles include works p: 212-364-0656 by Dan Berger, Ellen Carol DuBois, Andrew Arsan, Catherine e: [email protected] McNeur, Kate Cooper, Bettany Hughes, and Elizabeth Currid- Halkett. Previously, she was at Crown Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, which she joined in 2013. She has also worked at the Feminist Press, Guernica, and Words Without Borders, and is currently an editor at American Chordata.

ERIC HENNEY Eric Henney joined Basic Books in 2018 and acquires primarily editor in science, including medicine, technology, and psychology. He p: 212-364-0569 also acquires selectively in philosophy and education. Eric has e: [email protected] acquired and edited books by Marcia Bjornerud, Jeremy England, Sue Barry, Kevin Hand, Kerry Emanuel, Phillip Rogaway, Susan Schneider, George Bonanno, and James Lang, among others. Before joining Basic, Eric was the editor for physical, earth, and computer sciences at Princeton University Press.

CONNOR GUY Connor Guy joined Basic Books in 2019 and acquires in politics, editor history, , law, and cultural criticism, among other p: 212-364-0659 categories. His recent and forthcoming titles include books by e: [email protected] Jane Dailey, Robert Elder, Cara Fitzpatrick, Dan Canon, Nicholas Thomas, Sam Lebovic, and Maurice Isserman. Before coming to Basic, he worked at the Metropolitan Books imprint of Henry Holt and Company.

basic books 29 ABOUT

Since its founding in 1950, Basic Books has shaped public debate by publishing award-winning books in history, science, sociology, psychology, politics, and current affairs. Basic’s list of influential authors includes Stephon Alexander, Robert Alter, , Edward Baptist, H.W. Brands, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Iris Chang, Eugenia Cheng, George Chauncey, William Easterly, , Richard Florida, Martin Ford, Howard Gardner, Adrian Goldsworthy, Adam Gopnik, Victor Davis Hanson, , Judith Herman, Christo- pher Hitchens, Douglas Hofstadter, Leszek Kolakowski, Kevin Kruse, Lawrence Lessig, Claude Levi-Strauss, Alice Miller, Don Norman, Robert Nozick, Judea Pearl, Samantha Power, Diane Ravitch, Eugene Rogan, Thomas Sowell, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Eric Topol, Sherry Turkle, Timothy Snyder, Nicholas Stargardt, Michael Walzer, George Weigel, Bee Wilson, James Q. Wilson, Richard Wrangham, and Irvin Yalom. For Review Copies of Titles from

BASIC BOOKS & SEAL PRESS

Please Contact

LIZ WETZEL

212.364.0661 [email protected]

PRINTED IN CANADA NOTES 7 × 10.5 SPINE: 0 FLAPS: 0

B A S I C BOOKS

s p r i n g & s u m m e r

2 o 2 1 978-1-5416-2040-7